Assignment Overview 

This assignment is focused on further developing research, analysis, synthesis, and argumentative
skills. As you develop research-based essays, it is important to thoroughly analyze your
secondary sources for their credibility and utility in your own work. This bibliography should
cover both Essay #3 – “My Community Needs” and Essay #5 – Researched Critical Analysis. At
least two (2) of the articles should be scholarly, peer-reviewed sources from CUNY databases.

 

Chidera Obi-Eyisi

FIQWS 10115 HA21

Annotated Bibliography

01 December 2019

Annotated Bibliography

Reese, Frederick. “Sex Trafficking’s True Victims: Why Are Our Black Girls/Women So

Vulnerable?” Atlanta Black Star, Atlanta Black Star, 15 June 2017, https://atlantablackstar.com/2017/06/15/sex-traffickings-true-victims-why-are-our-black-girlswomen-so-vulnerable/

This article talks about the vulnerability of Black women and why it makes them easy targets for sex traffickers. Taking a serious approach to sex trafficking within the Black community, Reese examines why vulnerable Black girls and women are the most likely to be victimized. Utilizing various facts and statistics, Reese helps his readers understand how the community these women affect their life experiences.

Beginning with the narrative of Mimi Crown, a 21-year-old woman who was abducted and forced into sexual solicitation, Reese describes the conditions some of these women endured. Broken down into four main sections, Reese focuses on the problem, why Black women are so vulnerable and solutions to the problem. He appeals to pathos throughout the article as he cites specific examples of vulnerability that Black women face. He touches on the fact that most traffickers are more likely to target girls with “questionable family networks, homeless girls, girls in the foster system; girls that can be easily plied away.” He also uses logos when he cites statistics on the issue. For example, he mentions that “59 percent of all juvenile prostitution arrests involve African-Americans” according to the FBI. In addition, he also uses Mimi Crown’s story to build credibility because she is a Black woman and someone the majority of his audience can relate to.

The information presented in this article is valuable for my paper because it targets the population who is most likely to be sex trafficked. It also explains how the media and law enforcement agencies are not helping to solve the problem because they view most sex trafficking victims as prostitutes rather than people who need help. This article analyzes why and how the numbers of Black women being trafficked are on the rise which is exactly what I am discussing in my paper.

 

“Runaway slaves: rebels on the plantation.” The Atlantic, Nov. 1999, pp. 116-18,120. Gale  

OneFile: Contemporary Women’s Issues, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A30082412/CWI?u=cuny_ccny&sid=CWI&xid=a7acee2. Accessed 25 Nov. 2019.

This article by the Atlantic is a book review of RUNAWAY SLAVES Rebels on the Plantation by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger. The review focuses on the idea that enslaved people resisted their condition by frequently trying to run away most times. It highlights the fact that quiet resistance and open rebellion were common occurrences on a typical Southern plantation and that the average master had several runaways a year. Utilizing excerpts of slave narratives from the book, this article captures the timeline of the lives of runaway or “rebellious” slaves.

Beginning with a brief context about the history of America and its so-called “uniqueness” as the land of freedom, the article discusses how the country has failed to recognize and honor slave rebels and fugitives who risked their lives to escape the oppression of slavery. The article engages with pathos when it explains how for decades, the interpretation of slavery in history books has only been told from the slaveowner’s point of view. It even goes as far as detailing how slave flight was diagnosed as an illness named “Drapetomania.” Drapetomania was known as a “black” disease that could only be treated by whipping the devil out of the enslaved. When the article names the authors of the books as historians, it shows credibility because readers are now aware that the book was not written by an inexperienced individual. Logos is presented in the article when it states how the authors conducted research based on runaways who were advertised in newspapers. The results of their study showed that 81% of the runaways were mostly young male field hands. This also indicates that the females were less likely to escape because the majority had started bearing children and family escapes were difficult during the time.

This article supports the argument I am trying to make in my essay which involves the main character Cora running away due to the oppression she witnessed. The only bias that might be present in this article is the fact that it was written 20 years ago and some of the connections to present-day might not be relevant because a lot of changes have occurred in the last decade. I hope to use some of the information from the study in my essay as this would shed light on the conditions in Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.

 

Rothbard, Murray N. “The Brutality of Slavery.” Mises Institute, Mises Institute Donor, 21 Jan. 2013, mises.org/library/brutality-slavery.

          This article focuses on the economic aspect of slavery and how the enslaved were used as a source of capital. Rothbard explains how in the 1680s, masters preferred having bondservants rather than slaves because they could easily be exploited and were looking forward to freedom as they were not permanently owned. Whereas, enslaved people were permanently owned and had no hope for the future. Through conversations narrated in a diary entry, Rothbard is able to show an example of the brutality enslaved African Americans witnessed on plantations.

          In this article, Rothbard expands on the relationship between a master and the enslaved. He writes that threats of brutality underlay the whole relationship because the individuals were used as capital and tools for the benefit of their master. He uses an appeal to logic when he discusses the myth surrounding the slave system. He writes that the myth held by people is that since the slaves were their masters’ capital, the masters’ economic self-interest dictated kindly treatment of their property. He also appeals to pathos when he includes excerpts from the diary of William Byrd II, a master who considered himself kind and often wrote about brutes who mistreated their slaves. From the diary, one could see specific examples of brutality included. For example, when Byrd writes about how he put a branding iron on an enslaved man who pretended to be sick. Situations like these evoke an emotional response from the reader and cause them to sympathize with the enslaved.

        While most of the article sets up the context for the brutality enslaved people witnessed on plantations, it also goes in detail about the thought process of most slave owners. This article supports the point I am trying to make in my essay because it provides specific examples of a brutal scenario as well as highlights how African Americans became of more value to slaveowners than the indentured servants at the time.